RCMP scale back search of Salmon Arm farm where body was found

The RCMP have removed tents and heavy equipment from a Salmon Arm-area farm where human remains were found, but insist the investigation of the property continues.

“The search of the Salmon River Road site remains active and ongoing,” RCMP spokesman Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said. “Our investigative efforts and resource requirements are being continually assessed and, as a result, various resources are no longer required and are now being removed from the property.”

Police use screens to sift through dirt from a barn as they search a ranch on Salmon River Road on Nov. 3, 2017. Most of the heavy equipment had been packed up and moved off the farm this week.Jason Payne /
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On Tuesday, the RCMP dismantled temporary shelters from the Silver Creek property, and removed diggers and police trailers.

Moskaluk said the RCMP and the B.C. Coroners Service continue to investigate the death of Traci Genereaux, 18, and the discovery of her remains on the 24-acre farm.

In less than two years, four other women have vanished from the North Okanagan-Sicamous area near where the farm is located.

When asked if RCMP had found any other remains on the farm, Moskaluk replied by email: “The remains found were ‎confirmed to be those of one individual, those of Traci Genereaux.”

Postmedia reached family members of three of the missing women Wednesday, who said they had not received any update from RCMP about the downsized search or how, if at all, that impacted the search for their loved ones.

On Oct. 20, RCMP charged Curtis Wayne Sagmoen, the son of the farm’s owners, in connection with an armed assault of a sex-trade worker in August near the farm. The next day, police started searching the property, and announced human remains had been found.

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“Given the date we started the search we were fully prepared for the eventual seasonal change,” he replied Monday in an email. “No set time line on the completion of the search.”

But on Tuesday night, people who live near the farm noticed tents and police vehicles were missing from the property.

“So I happened to be driving out that way today and just drove past the property, it’s all packed up. No tents, command centres, nothing. Just a couple of squad cars,” local Jasmine Lane posted on Facebook Tuesday evening.

Until Tuesday, the farm was covered with RCMP tents, trailers and fencing for what appeared to be an extensive search.

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